With the advance of technology, development of computer related equipment has made great progress. Computer applications have also grown tremendously. They are now widely used in national defense and logistics, document exchange and file processing in enterprises, and personal applications. They are deeply woven into the lives of many people.
There are also many types of computers. In general, they can be classified as portable and stationary types. Notebook computers and personal digital assistants (PDA) are typical portable computers. Desktop computer and server hosts used by many enterprises are typical stationary computers.
In the stationary computer, a power supply is required to receive external electric power and transform to the electric power needed for operation of the computer equipment. Hence the power supply is an important device in the computer system. Refer to FIG. 1 for a conventional approach to installing a power supply on computer equipment.
The computer equipment generally includes electronic elements such as a mainboard, memory, central processing unit, various interface cards, data storage devices and the like. They are installed in a housing compartment 210 of a computer case 200. The computer case 200 has a rear side that usually has many first open areas 220 to connect to external electronic devices such as a display device, audio device, and the like. There is also a second open area 230 reserved for installation of a power supply 300. The conventional approach to installing the power supply 300 is to fasten an anchor board 400 on the computer case 200 and form a plurality of screw holes 240 around the second open area 230. The anchor board 400 is fastened to the computer case 200 by fastening screws 310 through the anchor board 400 and the screw holes 240. Then the power supply 300 is fastened to the computer case 200 by running screws 310 through the anchor board 400.
To enhance the fastening effect of the power supply 300, some anchor boards 400 have a bracing member 410 extended from one side to assist in holding the power supply 300.
While the conventional anchor board mentioned above can hold the power supply 300, with the constant advance of electronic elements in computer equipment, power requirements on the power supply 300 also increase. Nowadays, the specifications of 250 W, 300 W, or even 400 W and 500 W have been introduced. The size and weight of the power supply 300 increases constantly.
As a result, there are many concerns for the conventional computer case to support the power supply, notably:
1. Installation stability: The conventional design of the computer case 200 is inadequate to support the increasing size and weight of the power supply 300. Hence the power supply 300 cannot be installed steadily on the computer case 200.
2. Vibration and noise: As previously discussed, the weight of the power supply 300 is transferred to the computer case 200 through the screws 310. The screws 310 have to bear the weight and may fracture over a prolonged period of time. Moreover, even if high quality screws 310 are used, the screw holes 240 on the computer case 200 tend to warp and deform under the weight of the power supply 300. As a result, when the air fan of the power supply 300 is operating, vibration occurs and noise is generated. In serious situations, the access operation of the hard disk drives and optical disk drives could be affected.
3. Electro Magnetic interference (EMI): With the electric power of the power supply 300 increased, the EMI phenomenon also becomes more severe. Due to cost concerns, some manufacturers do not take proper protective measures. This affects the operation of other electronic elements of the computer equipment, or could even result in damage or malfunction of the computer equipment.